1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to managing data center equipment, and more particularly to automatically determining the location of components in a data center.
2. Background of the Related Art
A data center is a facility housing large, powerful computer systems and related infrastructure for centralized operation and management of the computer systems. Servers and other computer equipment in a data center are typically mounted in racks in a compact, high-density configuration to make efficient use of the available space in the data center. A data center may house numerous racks, with each rack capable of holding a large quantity of rack-mounted equipment. Supporting equipment in the data center generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls, and security devices.
A data center may contain hundreds or even thousands of servers. From time to time, servers may be installed, removed, or relocated in a data center, such as for maintenance, replacement, or upgrades. The maintenance or replacement of a server is often time-sensitive because that server may perform important business functions. Therefore, knowing the location of the various servers and other components is important, but also challenging due to the large number of servers and racks in a typical data center. A number of systems and methods have therefore been proposed in the art for locating racks and rack-mounted components in a data center.